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Premier Inn owner Whitbread has started work on an all-electric hotel in Swindon town centre.

The five-storey 195-bedroom property is the first Premier Inn to be designed without a connection to a natural gas supply. Instead, it will be completely heated and powered by grid energy generated from renewable sources and solar panels on the building.

Air-source heat pumps and new water-heating technology from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will also be included in the thermally efficient hotel building.

Alex Flach, º£½ÇÊÓƵ development director, said the “bold” concept had the potential to inform the specification of Premier Inn's new-build hotels.

“The new all-electric Premier Inn is designed to give us everything we need to run an operationally successful hotel. A combination of a thermally efficient building and on-site energy recovering and generating systems has given us the confidence to remove fossil fuels from the new Premier Inn."

Whitbread has pledged to become a net-zero business by 2040 - and has said it needs to find a replacement for natural gas across its estate.

“This is a considerable challenge as we rely on natural gas to heat water in our network of hotels and power many of our restaurant kitchens across the country," explained Mr Flach. "The impact of what we will learn from the all-electric hotel is huge.”

Councillor David Renard, leader of Swindon Borough Council, said: “Our town has a proud history of innovation so I am delighted Whitbread has chosen Swindon as the first place in which to build its first ‘all-electric’ hotel.